<p>Definitely. You can do them with an Ab wheel or Ab Dolly. It’s safer if you roll towards a wall, so you have something to stop yourself. Move farther from the wall as you get stronger. These exercises can all make your abs very very sore!</p>
<p>I thought about that first and wondered if there was any downside to that. Not something that I’d do in the office gym but something that I’d try at home. In the office, I’d use the abs roller plus. I haven’t done much abs work lately.</p>
<p>I suppose the worst that could happen would be falling a short distance.</p>
<p>Lululemon warned after the close today. Apparently they have some quality issues with their Luon pants (no clue as to what those are) and they’re going to halt sales to figure out what the problem is.</p>
<p>Stretch/strength/core done. Plenty of indoor cleaning today but didn’t get to the yard. That may wait another day or two.</p>
<p>Husband picked up my hold at the library on his way home, the Roy Benson book MOWC recommended. I’m still 10 ft away but sniffing tentatively at the heart rate monitor.</p>
<p>After bumping up all the weights Friday, I decided I was good to keep riding the same workout for a second week and lock down some of these exercises with more weight. I added one set of ValSlide Painful Pushaways during the warmup. Looks like I can pushaway the ValSlides 24 inches and still get them back. But, it doesn’t take long to start dripping sweat. </p>
<p>The cable pulley core stuff is really kicking my butt, but I am much more stable now than when I last did these at Planet Fitness a year ago. It’s just crazy how hard the Pallof Presses are. I do 10 reps per side and hold the arms extended for a count of 2.</p>
<p>Warm Up
Quadruped thoracic rotation
Quadruped hip extension
ValSlide Hip Flexion
Bottom position pushup hold
Band assisted leg lowering
Walking Lunge/Lateral Lunge
Squat to Stand</p>
<p>Agility Ladder
ladder 2 step walk forward
ladder Icky Shuffle forward
Ladder Ali Shuffle
ladder One leg hop</p>
<p>Yeah- on the LuLu pants- I read some comments on the site about the sheerness of the black. I haven’t gotten anything black from there in ages (to me, one of the big draws on LuLu is the cool colors). I can imagine it would be a little disconcerting to discover that your pants were see-through as you were in down dog in yoga class! I’ve seen bike shorts and swimsuits that had “aged” that had that problem.</p>
<p>still sore every where. Some basic stretch and machines. Also got on the treadmill and jog (4.2 MPH) for 1 mile just to loosen up the muscles. </p>
<p>Will buy one of those BP monitor - ebay has it for about $55. </p>
<p>Made an appointment to see my doctor on Wed. My family really don’t have a HBP problem and I have even started to drink de-caf teas. Hard to understand why I have such a HBP.</p>
<p>It’s great. I’m really impressed with how solid the stuff from this company is for cheap. The weight bench I have is a tank and this cable pulley thing is very smooth. It doesn’t have the pulleys that rotate side to side like the gym stuff, but that doesn’t matter to me. I just position myself in front of the machine so the pull is straight. Functionally, it feels just like the Cybex cable towers at Planet Fitness. Not bad for $250. </p>
<p>I think it would be fine for lat pulldowns, too. I’ll have to try them sometime, since this is supposed to be a lat pulldown machine! I’ll put the Airex pad on the floor and do them kneeling. I may also try some kneeling or standing horizontal rows. That will give me another pulling option along with chin ups and DB rows.</p>
<p>My only quibble is that I’d like about 6 more inches of travel on the cable chops. It’s fine, but I do hit the stops if I really push the pulldown out at the end. Not an issue at all for Pallof presses or rows. Plenty of travel for those. </p>
<p>Dad II–A cardiologist friend told me high BP could be caused by sleep apnea. I think lack of oxygen during the night causes the heart to work harder trying to oxygenate the lungs. I think that’s the basic idea. In any case, studies since the year 2000 have borne this out.</p>
<p>You might need a folded up towel under the small of your back to press against. This one will get the abs burning big time, particularly if you try to hold the arm and leg outstretched for a few seconds each time. The more you press into the ball with the other hand and leg, the more it burns.</p>
<p>And then, my favorite. Oh, it looks so simple, and then you start shaking and sweat drips off your nose…</p>
<p>Finally back to my regular schedule after a week where life got in the way of most of my workout plans. Walked 3.0 miles today (outside); did a 30 minute KB routine (DVD). I may buy those val-slides; I think they’re something I can use at home without having a cool gym space like Idad’s. I have a training session scheduled for tomorrow, but my area is supposed to get snow, which has started already and will continue until morning. The gym may be closed–won’t know until morning.</p>
<p>I like the look of that first exercise. I’ll give it a try. Last time I was at the gym there was a woman with very defined muscles, balancing on top of the stability ball on her knees, doing her arm weights (dumbbells). :eek:</p>
<p>3 miles.
1983 calories, 23% carbs.
About the same calories yesterday with about 36% carbs.</p>
<p>On BP; I had mine taken at the fitness center last fall for the first time in many, many years. It was something like 12x/7x or maybe 80 but it was basically normal. I didn’t rest - I just noticed that she took someone’s blood pressure and asked if she could take mine and she did. I didn’t feel nervous, etc.</p>
<p>BTW, the guy in our group that had the heart attack and major bypass surgery has been in the office the last few weekends. He looks a lot better than he did before the surgery. I think that he’s back to work full-time next week. I’m quite amazed at how fast recovery is from major procedures these days.</p>
<p>I really like Valerie Waters’ approach. She’s buddies with Mike Boyle and Alwyn Cosgrove, but has a way of couching pretty serious workouts in a ditzy “tone this”, “shape that” way that is inviting and fun. Her workouts and exercises work all the right stuff in all the right ways. And, my hat is off to anyone who can make a reverse lunge sound like fun!</p>
<p>A friend of mine brought in three boxes of muffins, doughnuts and these flat pastries with jam and sprinkled sugar.</p>
<p>Three boxes!</p>
<p>There’s hardly anyone in the office today.</p>
<p>She left one at the security desk so they called me over and suggested I take one. The building manager was there and I had a look and I just mentioned that he knew how hard I worked at losing weight. So they suggested that I have a healthy muffin. And I went over calories of doughnuts vs muffins. One of the security guards asked me why I was dieting and exercising. I guess that was a compliment.</p>
<p>Pretty tough stuff when I just brought a cup of oatmeal in for the day. Those doughnuts will be calling my name from the kitchen all day …</p>
while doing the training. carrying 5 ~ 10 lb less for 13 miles will save me so much energy.</p>![http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419oTV7PisL._SL500_SS500_.jpg]"tricep](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/419oTV7PisL._SL500_SS500_.jpg%5D%22tricep){kind=link}
